Nalbandian's moment of madness

NO matter what Argentine David Nalbandian achieves in his career, it is unlikely he will ever forget a moment of madness in which he left a linesman bloodied and led to him being disqualified from the Queen's Club final.

The fiery 30-year-old was leading 7-6 3-3 against Marin Cilic when he dropped serve in the seventh game and reacted angrily by kicking an advertising board which disintegrated and caused a nasty gash on official Andrew McDougall's leg.

A shocked McDougall cried out and instantly clutched his leg. When he rolled up his trousers, blood could be seen flowing from his shin.

After discussions between a number of tournament and ATP officials, umpire Fergus Murphy disqualified Nalbandian for 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' and awarded Cilic the match.

The Argentine is the first male player to be defaulted for injuring an official since Tim Henman accidentally hit a ball girl in the face with a ball after swatting it away at Wimbledon in 1995.

The 2002 Wimbledon finalist admitted his disqualification from the final against Marin Cilic was the worst moment of his career.

"I know that I do a mistake, 100 per cent," Nalbandian, who apologised for his behaviour after the match, said.
Nalbandian then claimed he had not been seen the official sitting there. "You are very angry," he said.

"I mean, sometimes you don't see nothing.

"I mean, I just hit the fence, and I didn't ... you don't see it.

"I don't know how to explain that."

Nalbandian has a history of controversial incidents and was fined for throwing a cup of water over a doping control official during this year's Australian Open.